Security systems and technology blog

With so many different types of wooden residential gates to choose from nowadays, it’s rather difficult to make a decision!

In most cases, you only need one set of gates for a driveway, and once you’ve made the choice, you will likely have those driveway gates in operation for the next decade. This is why it’s a decision that should not be rushed, but to give you some help making a selection, we’ve added some of the most important considerations below.

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The sheer amount of designs on the market today means it’s pretty easy to find something that’s modern, traditional, French, historic or artistic, so if you already have a particular design idea in mind, you’ll be off to a good starting point. Edwardian gates are still really popular here in the UK but they can actually work well with modern and traditional properties, so you don’t always have to think contemporary gates for new builds and classic gates for established homes.

What woods?

Many people believe that ‘softwoods’ aren’t as strong, durable and resistant as oak, but don’t let the name fall you. Softwoods such as redwood or red cedar are extremely popular and are some of the most cost-effective and durable wooden gates you can buy. Hardwood is also a good option and you of course can’t go wrong with oak, however, oak can be pricier and there are no guarantees that a solid oak fence will serve you better in the long run. When you’re browsing wooden gates for sale, whether that be online or in your local showroom, you’ll discover high quality, durable and dependable gates in both hardwood and softwood. You then just need to make a decision on style.

To paint or not to paint?

It’s a big decision right? When you decide to paint your driveway gate there’s really no going back, you’re almost committed from the very first coat. This is why you shouldn’t apply paint lightly. We recommend you first enjoy the gates as they are, with a wax or oil finish. If you really don’t like the way they look and you’re keen to add a touch of paint, whether that be a vibrant colour or a modern shade of grey, run a test sample first on a n old piece of wood. If you’re still sure you want to go ahead go for it. If you’re wondering why we’re so reluctant to advise you jump straight tin and start painting, it’s because paint does flake, and you can often get a longer lifespan (whilst less maintenance work will be required) with a good quality oil or wax, plus don’t you just love the natural warmth that timber brings?

Price

Finally you do of course need to think carefully about price. You’ll see that prices do vary considerably, and there will be many reasons why, such as thickness, type of wood, size, hinges and opening operation. Just be sure to look at all the options so you can understand where and why the price fluctuations exist.

You may think that a small gig or live music event with just a few hundred people is not big enough to hire security team but that might not be entirely true. Let us explain…

The fact of the matter is that you even if you don’t think an incident is likely to occur at your gig, you never know and to be safe isn’t just best to employ a security team for the day? Most venues and event planners add security guards to improve protection for those enjoying the music, but the key to planning a smooth event is to be prepared for the worst whilst always hoping for the best. There are so many live music events in London and major UK cities, but it’s also relatively easy to find Security Companies in London who offer fair prices for live gigs. They often have experienced security officers at the ready to step in handle your gig with ease.

Ability to focus on your core responsibility

It is hardly a secret that hiring security firms give you much more than just uniformed guards at your location. A professional security company can give you peace of mind restricting access to unauthorised people thereby allowing you to focus on other management parts of your event. Moreover, the presence of security team at your a live event will also make the visitor feel safe and secure and enjoy the music themselves.

Here are the details of how a professional security company will handle your occasion.

Through risk assessment

The very first thing that a professional a live music event security company will do is prepare a risk assessment. They will propose a security plan that is specially designed to meet your particular needs and covers all the vulnerabilities that you even might have. The plan will include all the possible scenarios and provides detailed solutions on how to handle them.

Getting a right blend of armed security team

One of the most important aspects of a good security team is the right balance between the number of the attendees and the number of the armed guards at your ceremony, Of course, you will never want to overboard by having too many security personnel at your event making people uncomfortable. On the other hand, if you are organising a very big live music event with thousands of people, you will need a large team of security guards to cater all your needs, including crowd control and access control.

As long as you do your research and choose a company with experience in gigs and live music events, then you will unlikely be disappointed. If it’s possible, try to meet the team first, so you can get to know them and brief them on how your event is likely to pan out. By learning more about them, and having them ask you questions about how your event will be run, there will be a better collective understanding.

Fires happen. It’s so very easy for a business to believe that a fire ‘will not happen to them’ but without the right training and equipment, fires can and will happen, and they can tear through your entire factory in minutes, leaving you with the world’s biggest headache.

Too many factories in the UK fall victim to fires, and it can all come down to not owning basic equipment, which can make a huge difference, such as fire shutters. These are designed to prevent the fire from spreading, and they’re incredibly effective. It does of course depend on the model that you choose, but generally, they are constructed of steel, whilst they can be opened or closed by a key switch, or remote control. The main advantage with fire shutters is that they can be closed automatically during a test or emergency situation. With shutters installed in your factory, it will not only be safer, but much more secure too, and we’d recommend you invest in these whether you have a small, medium or large factory.

The Fire and Rescue Services in England are regularly called out to emergencies in factories, and it’s so scary to think how many casualties can occur if you do not have the correct equipment in place. Yes these teams can of course respond very quickly to fires, but as we saw very recently with the Grenfell Tower, fire does spread fast and the Fire Services are not always going to be able to save each and every life when something major does go wrong. We don’t want to scare you into investing in expensive equipment that you do not need, but if you want to keep your employees safe and protect the future of your business, then you have to be prepared for such instances.

It’s no secret that too many companies refuse to conduct regular fire alarm tests, and some businesses don’t even test their fire alarms once a year. That’s a complete disregard for their employees safety in our eyes, and you should be holding regular fire tests throughout the year, but we advise you do at east one a month so that workers know exactly where they need to go if such a terrible event ever did unfold.

We’d like to finish on a positive note though, and there are plenty of factories in the UK which never have problems with fires, but it’s still important to make sure you have the equipment in place so you’re fully prepared and covered if such a disaster was to happen now or in the future.

Make sure you’re doing all you can to keep your employees safe, whilst protecting your equipment and your commercial property too. One minor human mistake can lead to a fire, and you not only need to have the equipment in place to deal with it, but also the personnel, however, this can only be the case if you’re providing regular training for all employees working at the factory.

Electronic giants Apple have claimed that they’re not worried about the predicted drop in customers after their 3 month trial ends in the next few weeks.

“We don’t wake up in the morning and look at the numbers and get stressed about it. We think that, over time, if the product is great, then people will choose our product over other people’s.

It is a coincidence, but it’s a nice coincidence because there’ll be lots of really interesting content, and there’ll be lots of buzz on social media. Our focus is on making Apple Music as great as it gets and the bump from the festival will really help.” (Oliver Schusser, VP of iTunes)

Behold all contactless payment fans in the UK, the payments cap is set to rise on September 1st by an extra £10 to £30 per day.

With contactless payments becoming much more popular, the decision made sense as over £2.32 billion was spent last year via contactless means, compared to £653 million the year before.

The increase in daily payments will also apply to Apple Pay and the upcoming Android version, Android Pay.

Visa welcomed the move, claiming that this will benefit retailers across the country.

“We believe that the new threshold increase to £30 could be the most significant to date, and has the potential to essentially redefine contactless usage. With contactless now accounting for one in 11 in-store Visa transactions, and Britons increasingly embracing the technology, our data shows that the rise could impact as many as 3 million Visa transactions per day in the UK, for a total of over £70 million.” (Kevin Jenkins, Visa)